UMD Business School Awarded $1.5M Grant from U.S. Department of Education

College Park, Md. – May 25, 2010 – The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business announced it has received a $1.5 million four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education to operate its Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER). Funds are awarded in a national competition held every four years and the current grant will fund the center until 2014.

The grant is a renewal of U.S. Department of Education funds awarded in 2006 for the Smith School’s CIBER. The center supports a number of student programs – including courses abroad, internships, and language training – designed to equip students with the skills and knowledge needed to negotiate fast-changing international terrain and lead globally. The center also supports faculty research and helps educators bring global experiences to the classroom. The Smith School collaborates with CIBER programs at other educational institutions to pool and share expertise on internationalization.

“We are excited to receive this grant to continue the great work our CIBER has been doing for the past four years,” said G. “Anand” Anandalingam, dean of the Robert H. Smith School of Business. “Our students and faculty have benefited immensely from the global experiences the center offers. It is so important that our future leaders leave our programs with an understanding of how global businesses operate around the world and in different cultures.”

With the new grant, the Smith CIBER will focus research activities on national needs brought to the fore by the recent economic crisis, which transformed the business landscape in significant ways.

“Government has now taken on a bigger role in the economy, and we are in the process of negotiating a new regulatory framework,” said Kislaya Prasad, CIBER director. “Emerging markets such as Brazil, China and India have become even more important than before, and every company now needs to face up to this. With mounting evidence of climate change, U.S. companies now need to find sustainable business models that do not sacrifice international competitiveness. The Smith School CIBER’s programs and research activities over the next four years will directly address these challenges.”

Since its inception, the Smith School CIBER has successfully carried out its objectives to support international competitiveness in business, focusing on government policy, emerging markets, global entrepreneurship and sustainability. The center supports Smith School conferences, including the fall 2009 Leadership for a Better World conference in collaboration with the Center for Social Value Creation and the upcoming June 2010 Global Business School Network conference; sponsors student learning opportunities such as the USAID Global Challenge, the China Business Plan Competition in Beijing, and a summer technology transfer internship program in Israel; and spearheads global study trips from Tunisia to Thailand.

The CIBER program was created by the U.S. Congress under the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 to increase and promote the nation’s capacity for international understanding and competitiveness. The Smith School CIBER supports this mission through programs that aim to fulfill critical manpower needs of U.S. and Maryland businesses, preparing Smith students for global leadership and supporting top quality research on topics of vital national interest. It will be one of just 33 such national resource centers housed at elite business schools across the country.